John Huff/Staff photographer
Construction workers fit a cross member to the structure of the counter weight tower on the south span of the Memorial Bridge in Portsmouth Tuesday.

PORTSMOUTH — Workers enjoyed a reprieve Tuesday from the recent bitter cold temperatures as construction of the Memorial Bridge continued with Archer Western crews placing pieces of the south span tower.

Ironworkers could be seen from Prescott Park Tuesday morning placing and securing steel beams into place on the south span towers.

The steel tower pieces, fabricated by Structural Bridge in Claremont, are being erected piece by piece by a barge-mounted crane adjacent to the south span. Archer Western estimates it will take about a month to complete this portion of the work.

The Control House will also begin taking shape as crews begin to erect the frame of that building at the very top of the south span.

Last week, workers placed the concrete bridge deck using a piece of equipment called a Bidwell, according to an update issued by Carol Morris of Archer Western Public Outreach.

On Tuesday, Morris said that although the cold may not be pleasant working conditions for crews to do their job, it is the strong winds that accompany local weather events that really throw the schedule off track.

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John Huff/Staff photographer
Construction workers continue to make progress on the new Memorial Bridge in Portsmouth Tuesday.

Hurricane Sandy in October, for example, she said, forced crews to move the barges they had been working on up river to be secured at the state pier due to very high winds.

But the cold itself won't slow anyone, or the project, down.

“They're keeping going and we're still on schedule to open in the summer,” she said.

Construction of the north span continues at the state pier by ironworkers and that portion of Memorial Bridge is expected to be floated in just like the south span sometime in March.

Morris told Foster's on Tuesday that Archer Western will have a better idea of when in March the north span will be maneuvered to its location by the end of this month. Once again, as has been a theme throughout the handful of float-outs and now float-ins of the bridge construction, the tide will play a big role in that schedule.

Still anticipated to open for both motor vehicle and pedestrian traffic in July, other elements of the bridge project will likely take a bit longer.

The final work, according to a statement from Archer Western, which includes completing approach work on both the Portsmouth and Kittery sides, the channel fender system, landscaping and cleanup, will take until the end of the year to complete.

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John Huff/Staff photographer
Construction workers fit the newly built north span to the barge Cape Cod in preparation for its March float out to the Memorial Bridge construction site in Portsmouth.